Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Updates are coming. This I promise. Life's been insane lately, and I'm over a month behind on wedding photos, and then there are living arrangements to ponder, and on top of that I want to post pics from my trip to LA. After that, we'll post some camping photos and we'll be flung straight into fall festivities.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

After hearing from Brian, I was told that the airbrush artist was, in fact, incorrect in his estimation that the tramp stamp wouldn't rub off on Robyn's dress. While her dress hasn't been cleaned, some of the ink and glitter rubbed off on her wedding day.

Monday, September 7, 2009

The night before the wedding, mere hours before Robyn became "one of us" we threw her the best bachelorette party Central IL knows how to throw! What else does one do in mid-August in Springfield, Illinois? Why, the state fair, of course!

Robyn, shortly after we decorated her with a 'bachelorette' hat, 'bride to be' sash, and glow necklace (for good measure).

To fully enjoy the state fair in all it's glory, we (and by we, I mean Danielle, Robyn's Maid of Honor) came up with a scavenger hunt for Robyn to complete (and really, I gave Danielle the idea, so I get at least 10% of the credit, right?)

Here, Robyn shows off the toilet paper veil she had to make...and wear. She's a better sport than I am!

Another task asked Robyn to walk into the ballroom and find an "older" gentleman to practice her wedding dance. Robyn asked one man, and he directed her to the oldest man ever.

Ferris wheel! Another scavenger hunt task had everyone ride a carnival ride on the midway. Robyn got to shout, "I'm getting married tomorrow!" from the top of the ride.

Here are my two favorite sisters (in-law).

Robyn was a little nervous on the ride. It shuddered quite a bit!

"I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!!!"

Robyn and me. Look at her! She's glowing! (Although it could be a reflection from the glow necklaces....)

One task on the scavenger hunt asked Robyn to get her face painted. Well, being that it was the first night of the fair and all, the face-paint stand closed "late" and closed at 8:00 p.m. Instead, Robyn got an air-brushed tramp stamp.

It was actually pretty fun to watch.

Ta da! The air-brush guy assured her that it wouldn't stain the inside of her dress.

Another task asked Robyn to kiss a pig. The barns were closed, so she blew a kiss to a pig at the petting zoo.

One of the last tasks Robyn completed was to feed fried key lime pie to 2 of us. I wanted to try it, and so did Susan!

Again, Robyn is an amazingly good sport about things. The ultimate verdict was that the pie was good and the breading was good, but together...very strange.**There are no photos of the bachelor party because we have one digital camera between us and I took it the night before. Oh well. From what I hear Brian's bachelor party wasn't *too* wild and crazy, but that could just be something men say...**

Brian & Robyn's wedding weekend was just gorgeous. The weather, the venues, and (of course) the bride & groom were just perfect. We were so excited to be a part of it!

Annie Merner Chapel. I've attended a number of weddings here and each one is just exquisite. Had I been able to convince Graham to get married down in Jacksonville, this is where we'd have made it official.

Easily one of my favorite spots in Jacksonville, if not the whole world.

From the altar, looking out.

Pre-rehearsal. (Prehearsal?)

Robyn & Brian at the rehearsal dinner with less than 24 hours to go.The groomsmen wearing their gifts: hats and t-shirts for all! Brian did a great job of picking out a funny t-shirt for each guy; they were perfect! I can't really say how he did on hats, except that he got Graham a Chicago Cubs hat and Graham was more than satisfied. So, if nothing else, Brian was 1 for 4. Not too bad. :-)

On August 15th, Graham's brother and my favorite brother-in-law, Brian, married his longtime girlfriend Robyn.

I've been so blessed to have both of them in my life as friends and family. Robyn and I would have remained friends had one of us split from Graham or Brian. There was never any doubt Robyn would have stood up in my wedding, and I'm so glad I've gotten to know her as a friend and not *just* a sister. Graham loves Brian and Robyn and is the first to admit that his life would have been very different had he not had a little brother to play with and stir up trouble with. As different as they are, they have some wonderful similarities and I know Graham was honored to be Brian's best man last month.

We are woefully behind in posting photos and updates, but bear with us! I'll post some wedding weekend photos this afternoon to catch you all up---all 5 of our readers. :-)